The Last Horror Movie DVD Review:

What is it about the horror genre that makes
filmmakers want to mess with our heads? For the
last 10 to 15 years, the horror genre has seen
more postmodernism than a Derrida convention.
Aside from the countless "ironic" horror movies
that played with genre conventions, loads of
films have adopted a faux-documentary style in an
attempt to deconstruct the way we distinguish
fact from fiction as viewers. Filmmakers even
went as far as implanting the myth of the Blair
Witch in the American psyche before the film was
released in order to make the film more real and
therefore more scary. The Last Horror Movie is a
film that continues in this tradition.

Max Parry (Howarth) is a murderer, but he's also
a man with something to say. While random
killings might prevent you from getting caught,
it doesn't give your message much of a chance of
being heard. So he has decided to tape over a
horror movie at your local video shop and show
you footage of his killings as well as challenge
your views on murder. Max thinks that he is as
he is and he can't change, but the rest of us
aren't that different from him. Why do we watch
murders in our spare time? Why do we prefer to
spend money on DVDs rather than send that money to help the starving in Africa?

This problem has three basic problems. The first
is that the title is a complete misnomer as the
film simply is not scary. Richards prefers to
make Max appear engaging rather than alien and
twisted so his crimes do not take on the symbolic
power that comes with the twisted psychological
contexts of the killings in Se7en or Silence of
the Lambs. To Max, killing is nothing more than
a hobby so the killings lack any real
psychological impact.

The second problem is that despite going on about
the need to get his message across, Max doesn't
have a message beyond the boring falsehoods of
calling horror fans sadistic voyeurs. As any
horror fan will tell you, watching horror is
masochisticŠ we choose to put ourselves through
unpleasant situations. By voicing a tired and
discredited reactionary "challenge", Richards
proves that he has little to actually say once
given a platform, preferring instead to jump on
the Pomo bandwagon and deploy tricks and ideas
seen before elsewhere.

The final problem is Max himself. While
different from most cinematic killers, Max's
upper middle-class lifestyle and artistic
pretensions make him more irritating than
terrifying. As he talks about his film
challenging horror genre conventions you're
reminded less of Hannibal Lecter and more of
Nathan Barley. The film's PR materials invite
comparisons to Man Bites dog and there are a
number of similarities but the main difference is
that where Benoit Poelvoerde was charismatic and
genuinely funny, Howarth is just smug.

However, despite these problems, the film isn't
actively unpleasant to watch. The dialogue is
occasionally quite witty (particularly Max's
twisted arguments) and the acting is surprisingly
good from a cast of unknowns. The film also
nicely conveys Max's London as a place where of
perpetual weddings and social gatherings where
upper-middle class people drink expensive wine
and talk bollocks. As a social satire, Last
Horror Movie certainly has its moments and it's
therefore tempting to bestow on Max some kind of
Patrick Bateman/American Psycho anti-hero status. However, such moments are fleeting, if only
because the film struggles to make it past an
hour and a quarter.

In conclusion, this is a film that is easily
compared to the likes of Man Bites Dog, Henry: a
Portrait of a Serial Killer and American Psycho,
but unfortunately that is all it is. Last Horror
movie is reminiscent of so many other films
because there is nothing here that has not been
done before elsewhere. As a straight horror
movie it fails because it isn't scary, as a
portrait of a murderer it also fails because Max
only kills for fun and we never understand why
and as a think piece it fails because it doesn't
have anything interesting to say. Having said
that, it's not un-watchable and is an entertaining way to spend an hour and twenty minutes.

Star Rating = **

PICTURE & SOUND

The film is presented in 1.78:1 Anamorphic
Widescreen with DTS Digital Surround 5.1. It's
nice to see such a small film with DTS sound but
one can't help but feel that less fancy picture
and sound quality would have made the film feel
more realistic. It is supposed to be a home
video, after all.

BONUS FEATURES

The packaging boasts a commentary by "Max" but I
couldn't find it so I imagine that means it was
either dropped or it's an Easter egg hidden in
here somewhere. Apart from that, this DVD comes
with a rather bumper crop of extras.

The commentary track with Richards and Howarth
proves to be something of a let down as Richards'
commentary is a little dry and Howarth's
interjections hardly spell-binding. Opting for a
commentary that focuses so much on the making of the film is also undermined slightly by the
presence of a making-of featurette and audition
footage. So we get a comprehensive if somewhat
dry understanding of how the film was made.

The DVD also includes one of Richards' early
short films and an extra short film made by other
people. This is an extra that is always welcome
and should be done far more often. Richards'
offering is called Pirates and deals with a bunch
of teenagers rejecting the brutal conditions they
work under. It is paired with a shorter piece
called Self-Help that is nicely strange. Neither
is mind-blowing but all concerned should be
applauded for the decision to include them anyway.

The DVD also features a trailer, some deleted scenes and Tartan's trailer roll.

OVERALL

For such a small film, this is a wonderful
collection of extras. We gain a good insight
into the making of the film from three separate
extras devoted to it. The traditional trailers
and deleted scenes are also fun but the true
delight here is the short films. Not enough
filmmakers include their early works on their DVD
releases. If you like the film, chances are
you'll be overjoyed with the extras.



Jonathan McCalmont